At the outset of a drilling operation, drillers typically establish a drilling plan that includes a target location and a drilling path, or well plan, to the target location. Once drilling commences, the bottom hole assembly (“BHA”) is directed or “steered” from a vertical drilling path in any number of directions, to follow the proposed well plan. For example, to recover an underground hydrocarbon deposit, a well plan might include a vertical well to a point above the reservoir, then a directional or horizontal well that penetrates the deposit. The drilling operator may then steer the BHA, including the bit, through both the vertical and horizontal aspects in accordance with the plan.
Often, the drilling operator reviews 4 to 5 screens (e.g., 2 to 3 human machine interfaces (“HMI”) and 2 electronic drilling recorder (“EDR”) screens) in order to make informed drilling decisions. Generally, the EDR screens present the sensor data channels as enunciators and scroll graphs, and the HMIs present necessary alerts and triggers to send the controls back to the controls systems. This results in drillers having to rely on their muscle memory and previous experiences in order to make decisions, thus rendering them subjective.